MUMBAI: Eminent Islamic scholars, senior clerics, head of a leading Muslim organisation, and anti-jihadist activists have strongly condemned the utterances of al-Qaida operative Zakir Musa.

While calling Musa’s rant highly objectionable and misleading, community leaders have said that India’s secular Constitution provides enough scope for the minorities to solve their problems and they don’t need any “lecture” from a terrorist who believes in violent ideology.

“Indian Muslims know how to fight their battles peacefully and find solutions to their problems within the constitutional framework. Musa’s inflammatory statements seem to have been made to appease the anti-Muslim forces in India. His views are in tandem with those who hate Indian Muslims,” said Naved Hamid, president, All India Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, an umbrella body of 14 organisations.
Anti-terrorism crusader and president of NGO Islamic Defence Cyber Cell, Dr A R Anjaria, who had initiated the biggest fatwa against the Islamic State in 2015, vowed to reply to Musa’s rant soon. “He calls Indian Muslims shameless but the likes of Musa are the worst oppressors and enemies of Islam who kill innocents in the name of religion. I will reply to him soon through an audio-video,” vowed Dr Anjaria.
Islamic scholar Dr Zeenat Shaukat Ali dismissed Musa’s message as incitement from a “misguided” mercenary. “His reading of Islam is wrong. He tells Indian Muslims to avenge the atrocities perpetrated by ‘gau rakshaks’ but does he know how much the Prophet valued compassion and forgiveness? It is these so-called warriors of Islam who have defamed the faith and fuel Islamophobia across the world. They are enemies of Islam and Muslims,” Ali said.
While condemning the call for joining Ghazwa-e-Hind (the final and last battle for the conquest of India), senior cleric Mufti Manzar Hasan Ashrafi Misbahi said it has not been proved yet if the Prophet ever spoke of such a conflict. “Ghazwa is a battle in which the Prophet personally participated. So any battle fought after his demise cannot be called a Ghazwa. And if Indian Muslims ever fought a such a Ghazwa, it must have been against the British colonizers who had oppressed the subcontinent’s Muslims,” said Mufti Misbahi who also refuted Musa’s claim that after the victory in the Jung-e-Badr 313 Muslims “ruled the world”.